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All of us know that closures are essential to beverage and food packaging and for the consumer the closure is the gateway to the product experience. Most rigid containers and packages require a means of closing. It can be a separate device or seal or sometimes an integral latch or lock. Depending on the contents and container, closures have several functions.

Closures help in securing the product, improving shelf life, provide a barrier to dirt, oxygen, moisture, etc. Caps and closures also help in re-closing or reusing the container and assist in dispensing and measured consumption of the product.

The metal and plastic closures have been used to protect products since long, but over time, these closures have evolved and have become part of the brand.

Types of closures:-

Closures need to be attached to the container with sufficient security. Threads, lugs, hinges, locks, adhesives, etc. are used. In terms of possible options, thousands of different closure designs exist, although only some of the closures are commercially successful and widespread. Most of the closures need to accommodate slight manufacturing variation in the container and the closure structure.

Container closing process can be broadly divided into three phases.

• Closure orientation and feeding

• Closure placement OR Application

• Sealing

Depending upon the machine, closure and container type and user requirements, various methods to execute the above processes are followed.

Glass beverage bottles are frequently closed with crown caps. These are shallow metal caps that are crimped into locking position around the head of the bottle. Crown caps concept was patented by William Painter in 1892. These are one of the oldest commercially used caps in the beverage industry. This closure consists of a simple metal cap with a corrugated skirt or flange and a compressible liner (usually plastic)

In a Crown Capping Machine number of crowning heads (depending upon the machine model) simultaneously press standard crowns onto glass bottles by a pneumatic pressure plate. The crowns are sorted and usually fed into position by a magnetic automatic barrel crown cap feeder. Glass bottles are automatically indexed by number of rows parallel to the conveyor line and then seamlessly transferred to an indexing discharge conveyor after that the crowns are pressed on to the bottles.